Publicity on the New York Times

It was raised the other day at a book party for G. A. Mudge, the author of “Alice in Central Park — Statues in Wonderland,” which he calls the only book about all the statues in the park.

He said the parks department website describes the figure a few feet from Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire cat as the March Hare. But the website of the Central Park Conservancy, which manages the park and raises 75 percent of its budget, states that it is the White Rabbit. As if that were not confusing enough, Mr. Mudge said the conservancy’s website also has a two-minute audio recording by Whoopi Goldberg that refers to the March Hare.

Mr. Mudge said the parks department issued a news release in 1959, just before the statue was dedicated, that said the figure was the March Hare. But he said that a brochure distributed at the ceremony identified the figure as the White Rabbit. As did The New Yorker, which said Alice was flanked by “the White Rabbit, watch in hand (he had just pulled it from his waistcoat pocket).”